Climate change is a pressing challenge, requiring leadership and determined action. At the same time, people are concerned that policies do not put them at an economic disadvantage or unnecessarily undermine their welfare.

Can governments balance these concerns? The OECD’s Environment Policy Committee meets at ministerial level on 28-29 April 2008 under the theme of global competitiveness. Some non-OECD developing countries will also participate, as will stakeholders from business, labour and civil society.

What actions are you taking to make energy more secure, cleaner and cost-effective? OECD Observer Ministers' Roundtable

Does social policy help or hinder economic growth? Is it possible to reconcile work and family life, or must this be a tough choice that only parents should make? In this OECD Observer roundtable to mark the 2005 social affairs ministerial meeting under the theme, Extending opportunities: How active social policy can benefit us all, we have invited ministers from a cross-section of OECD countries to answer the following questions:

In this Observer roundtable, we have invited employment and labour ministers from a cross-section of OECD countries to answer a straightforward question:

How serious are we about sustainable development? Governments are frequently accused of paying lip-service to the idea, but not taking enough action to make it work. We asked ministers from a cross-section of countries – South Africa as a non-OECD country and host to the Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development; Finland as a smaller, though environmentally progressive, OECD member; France, whose government has recently instituted a sustainable development portfolio; Mexico, as one of the largest and poorest OECD countries, and the United States as the OECD’s biggest and perhaps most environmentally important member – to answer the same straightforward question:

Citizens in all OECD countries want to know that they will get the high-quality health services they need, when they need them. They also want to know that they are getting value for their money. Governments face the dual challenge of improving healthcare performance and demonstrating that improvement if they are to preserve public confidence in health systems and institutions.

In the section that follows, five health ministers from OECD countries have been invited to answer a straightforward question:

“What action are you taking to improve health-service performance in your country and how will you gauge that improvement?”